Hurricane Katrina: Graphic - What Went Wrong The Washington Post produced a timeline tracking Hurricane Katrina's path and listing the federal, state and local responses to the storm before and after it hit the Gulf Coast (updated thru 10/05)

In the past two years, New Orleanians have been killed at a rate well
above pre-Katrina years when factoring in the city's huge population
drop. That's giving New Orleans a reputation as a national murder
capital, even though it was listed as the 65th most dangerous U.S. city
in a recent report based on FBI crime statistics. Continue at the Sun Sentinel.

December 02, 2007

The bottle exploded in his searching brown eyes. Eyes that had danced
upon strings of joyous Seussian words, followed spiraling footballs
into outstretched hands, hunted creeks for crabs. Eyes that had taken
in the absence of a long-gone father, the struggles of a stretched-thin
mother, the bruises given her by a violent boyfriend, the Gulf Coast
rot of Hurricane Katrina. Eyes of a boy just being a boy, and not yet 10.

This moving piece by Dan Barry of the New York Times, tells the story of young Isaiah Polk's harrowing experience as a result of having stumbled upon crystal meth dump site behind a FEMA trailer park in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Story is here.

November 24, 2007

Herbert Saffir, creator of category scale, dies at 90

The death of Herbert Saffir, creator of the Saffir-Simpson scale for determining hurricane intensity, is being reported in newspapers around the nation. However, I like this article by Anita Lee at Biloxi's Sun Herald which takes a look at Saffir's visit "to the Mississippi Coast after Hurricane Katrina at the invitation of Gulfport
attorney Joe Sam Owen, who represents policyholders in their lawsuits
against insurance companies". It was Saffir's opinion that Hurricane Camille's lessons were "wasted on the gulf coast", an opinion I concur with. Let it be said that I was in Biloxi within days after Camille's landfall - It was one of the most shocking and traumatic experiences of my life, albeit it prepared me for Katrina. At any rate, good article---check it out here.

Regarding the failed forecasts for this year's prediction of an above average hurricane season, I concur with the questions posed by Del Stone, Jr. at Northwest Florida Daily News. To wit:

"It all seems so tiresome, doesn’t it? The shrill predictions of
disaster, the finger-pointing and politics when a disaster actually
occurs and the scorn when it doesn’t?...For instance, is it useful or even responsible to predict how active a
season will be when so many of the forecasts are wrong? This year was
expected to be an above-normal season, with an ACE Index (a measure of
storm intensity) well above the mean. Every prediction, with the
exception of the National Hurricane Center’s range of 13 to 17 storms,
was wrong. What purpose do these numbers serve beyond scaring people? Do they make
one bit of difference in the way coastal residents prepare for a storm?"

Peter Whoriskey of WaPo (who has really stayed with it re Katrina recovery reportage) has penned a telling article about the mixed recovery bag in Biloxi, Mississippi. On the one hand Casinos are thriving and real estate development is flourishing while "working class neighborhoods" (more than 10,000 displaced families in FEMA trailers) still haven't rebounded. Now there is a proposal "to divert $600 million in
federal housing aid to fund an expansion plan at the Port of Gulfport". For a deeper look into the situation see this article at WashingtonPost.com.

LOS ANGELES (Dow Jones) -- Call it "the other LA." In addition to sharing the same abbreviation as the film industry's capital,
the state of Louisiana is capturing more of the dollars going into movie and
television production -- roughly half a billion dollars for about 50 projects
this year. Continue.

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Margaret Saizan is a digital media producer, visual arts rep & vision strategist. Her mission is to inspire new vision through transformational media and communications.

Featured Contributors

Paul A. GreenbergPaul A. Greenberg teaches journalism at Tulane University in New Orleans. He also writes for a number of local, regional and national publications. Greenberg has been chronicling post-Katrina New Orleans since five days after the storm.

Making Change For KatrinaNational citizen-driven fundraising campaign to collect spare change to benefit the victims of the Gulf Coast hurricanes. The recipient is Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit organization that builds simple, decent housing for people in need.

Emergency Communitiesa grassroots, on-the-ground relief effort using compassion and creativity to provide for those worst effected by disasters.

Sister City Support NetworkWe are one city assisting one other city in its long term effort to rebuild in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina by: networking within our community, with other towns who embrace Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi as a sister city, and most importantly, with locals who live in Bay Saint Louis.

Coast 2050: Toward a Sustainable Coastal LouisianaThe failed levees in New Orleans are just a symptom of this larger problem.While reasons for Louisiana's coastal erosion may be more complex than levees, they are part of the problem that has a solution.

Alternate ROOTSartists, activists, and culturalworkers supporting constructive self-determination by affected communities as they begin the process of healing and rebuilding & assistance for artists & cultural workers affected by the hurricane.